skill-revamp
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Asheron's Call readies radical February revamp
When you have an MMORPG that's well into its second decade, there's got to be a strong temptation to simply keep the servers on and let it ride. The community is probably pretty hardcore -- and they're certainly faithful -- and throwing a bunch of changes at them could be a dicey proposition. Turbine is taking that gamble with its venerable Asheron's Call sandbox, though, as the title's February update is bringing sweeping changes to the world of Auberean. New skills and new systems are the order of the day, and whether you're talking about the removal of racial skills or the ability to have six additional specialization skills, there's probably going to be an adjustment period after the patch. Head to official AC boards for all the details. [Thanks to Rehlik for the tip!]
September's Ask Cryptic details STO's F2P transition, new content, and more
In the midst of the recent hullabaloo over Star Trek Online's free-to-play transition, September's Ask Cryptic focuses on what players can expect from the change. Executive Producer Dan Stahl touches on the subject of skilltree revamps, server availability, and much, much more. Space skills are getting a few sweeping changes in order to make them more applicable to players of all builds. As such, skills that "apply only to a specific ship class or energy type" are being replaced with more general skills, such as increased damage, increased turn rate, and so forth. Stahl also reveals that the team has ordered new hardware and made perfomance tweaks to the game in order to allow for a potential influx of new players once the game goes F2P. Players also ask about new content, noting that talked-about post-Season 4 content has not materialized as players expected. Stahl notes that Borg Red Alerts were just released, and work on the Deep Space Nine Feature Episode Series is progressing steadily. The Q&A also details the upcoming Borg Ground Invasion, which assigns players the difficult task of removing a Borg infestation before the Collective can successfully assimilate an entire planet. The Q&A goes on to touch on new social zones, a great deal of "nice to have but low-priority" additions, and oodles more. For the full Q&A, hop your way on over to the full Ask Cryptic post.
Lore-masters tune up their hogs to cruise the mean streets of Isengard
Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard is bringing plenty of class changes, tweaks, and updates to the table, and the hybrid Lore-master class is waiting for the dev love with arms wide open. While Turbine's talked about the class' increased ability to be a reliable off-healer, word is coming out of the beta that there are many more changes than just the ability to slap a bandage on a wounded ally. A Casual Stroll to Mordor reports on how the improved skills function in play. These include the ability to stack up to three Burning Embers DoTs on a target, the combination of two Signs of Battle powers into one Wizard's Fire, a nice 10% buff to pet damage through Sign of the wild: Rage, and a much more versatile Improved Staff Sweep. There's also word on the new Lore-master pet: a Limrafn. While Lore-masters were originally slated to receive an Auroch pet, apparently the common complaint about the pet's size ended up swaying Turbine's mind. The Limrafn is a floating ball of light that doesn't attack, but instead assists the Lore-master in the off-healing department. Lore-masters will also see one of their lesser-utilized trait lines -- Keeper of Animals -- given much love in the form of tempting abilities and buffs.
